Sam- Thanks. I'm definitely going for a 30's-40's movie poster style on this one.
I made some progress this past week such as refining the girl and blocking out the background. Also started on the border a bit.

There are a few things that are bugging me about the girl so I hope to tweak those as well as fine tuning the waterfall and mountains in the next week-time permitting.
Once again thanks for having a look.

Finally got a few chances in the evenings this week to spend some time on this painting as things have cooled down at work a bit. Fine tuned her face a bit as well as the background and made some changes to the border.
The red really pops in this picture-she doesn't look so sun burnt in person-honest.
Mahalo.

Freaking Gorgeous! You are definitely capturing the Tarzan/Kong/vintage vibe.. DIG the border too.
_________________To drown sorrow, where should one jump first and best? "Certainly not water. Water rusts you." -Frank Sinatra

Hey folks.
SneakyTiki- thanks so much. King Kong is easily my favorite movie of all time. I have the making of book with all those great pencil sketches and as of late it has been educational in thinking about light and shade.
GoTiki, Vampiress and ramba-zamba, thank you for your encouraging words. This painting has been a challenge and pushed me outside the box a little. Since pretty much all the paintings I've ever done are on this thread I'm still figuring things out as I go along. Human faces are very hard. Especially pretty girls. Having a background in sculpture helps allot with proportion but there is a big difference in working 3D with clay and painting in 2D.
I took a break from all that and finished this mock-up for a screen print I've been working on. I did it old school punk flyer style(cut and paste). The New Guinea pieces are from my rec-room collection.
Take care and thanks again.

Ok, I finished this one a while back. Finally after countless distractions.
Anyway here she is.

A closeup of those eyes.

The tikis.

And some new stuff on the slab. The black and white ones are T-shirt graphics for Tiki grindcore/electronoise band WADGE. Think the Ventures meet Napalm Death.
The Don Knotts painting way back at the start of the thread will be on the new album cover. In fact that painting was the inspiration for the album in the first place. "Don Knotts goes to Hawaii". I gave it to Paul who is behind WADGE as a gift last year and things went from there. "The Love God Meets the Tiki God" is one of the song titles.
Check out the last WADGE album "The Road To Hana" on the RSR label from Germany.
The above painting is going to be on a WADGE 7" coming out of the Czech Republic later this year.

Great border on the newly finished one...Definetely a sweet vintage/pulp cover feel!
Nice! And you got a Spirit Hook slowly coming to life i see!
Tabu-that screenprint is very cool! You nailed the vibe with the textures
and the early punk aesthetic!
Right On!

Thanks LLT. The spirit hook is coming along and I've got a few more paintings in mind. Watch for more photocopy collage stuff coming up as a friend and I are getting nostalgic and talking about doing a zine or two. It's been over 10 years since we last did one. Should be fun. Who doesn't love zines? Take care.

Thanks for showing your painting steps. She has a very "life-like" feel. Interesting you used a non living model (the bust).
Do you use the technique of using the color green in the shadows on the skin?
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Tiki Shark- Thanks, glad you feel she looks life like. I started with the intent to just do a still life of the ceramic bust with a background but I got carried away and went for a "real" girl. I used the bust for the pose but referenced some old movie starlet photos for the details. Shes a bit Lauren Bacall and a bit Judy Garland.
As for using green-yes I did use some light olive tones in the shading at one stage. That's a technique I learned working in prosthetic makeup when painting silicone or foam latex. Green undertones are subtle but magically bring things to life.
I would like to try and experiment with some crazy color schemes and strange colored lighting like Basil Gogos uses. It takes a bit of courage to start painting someone purple though.

I have not posted any artwork updates in a very long time. However I have dusted off this spirit hook painting and found the time to bash away at it over the last couple of weeks. I have spent a few hours on it since this picture was taken and will post an update soon.
I intended for this to be sort of an artifact portrait. This spirit hook is a piece from my collection and I wanted to give it a place to exist other than my rec room wall. By placing the time of the painting in the very late afternoon or pre dusk hour I hoped to lend a sense of mystery about what is to come. After a long fast will the spirits of the ancestors speak through the oracle tonight?
I have owned this hook for a number of years and the woman I bought it from obtained it from a friend in the 60's who had gathered it during a Sepik River adventure. It well worn even then and still smells strongly of camp fire. It is very much the real deal and is actually pretty spooky in person.
Anyhow thanks for looking.